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Mysteries of France

12 February 2015

It is only natural that people are outraged at the idea that three young people can be murdered for something as stupid as a parking space. And yet, a quick Google search reveals this is tragically common in America.

10 January 2015

My heart is too full to speak of these events at present. I can only hope that the appropriate response will be found. People in France and in many cities around the world are marching in solidarity, and this is heartening. But the darkness is very dark.

The myth that French women don't mind if their husbands (or boyfriends) cheat on them might just be a myth after all.

Not only did Ms Trierweiler mind - which is kind of funny if one remembers that her ill-starred love affair started with the future president betraying his own wife with her - but she minded so much that she tried to commit suicide, followed by political murder.

(That's minding)

The real mystery here is how this book got into bookstores in the first place, since France has a long and not particularly distinguished tradition of censorhip of books.

27 July 2014

Thank you to Le Parisien and excellent AFP photographers Kenzo Tribouillard and Frédéric Dugit for these eloquent photos taken in or near Place de la République in the center of Paris on July 26, 2014. As predicted by the French government, "casseurs" (troublemakers, thugs, breakers, hooligans, hoodlums) got violent near the end of the demonstration - which had been banned for precisely this reason. A massive police presence with busloads full of CRS riot police prevented roving bands of young thugs from doing more destruction and from attacking the Jewish Quarter of Paris. Notice the covered faces, the burning Israeli flag and the "quenelle", hate-mongering comic Dieudoné's hommage to the Hitlerian salute. 70 or so young men were taken into custody. Meanwhile the deathcount in Syria has now exceeded 170,000 to general indifference in Paris and elsewhere.

21 July 2014

In 1964, the Général de Gaulle inaugurated France's great business school. HEC would be reserved exclusively for men until 1973. Famous alumni include France's current president, François Hollande (H75) and former IMF chief Dominique Strauss Kahn (H71).

03 July 2014

FRANCE: After nearly a year of intensive surveillance - including wiretaps, search, seizure and interogation - a suspect who is also the greatest potential rival to the sitting President is charged with crimes unrelated to the original justification for surveillance. Here are a few questions from a curious observer: